Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Consequence (5 page)

              Captain Ares had seen fit to work the areas in the boundary space between Confed, the remains of the Talaran Collection, and the old Enkarran Empire/current Priman space.  There were plenty of opportunities to take advantage of, and his latest haul was proof of that.

              "How much longer?" Captain Ares asked of his second in command on the bridge.  The compartment was cramped, with pipes, ducts, wiring bundles and lights hanging too low from the overhead.  The ship had been rebuilt dozens of times, often with new components just bolted right on over the old ones when time was tight and funds were short.  Someday he'd buy or, more likely, steal a much better ship.

              "An hour at most," the woman assured him.  "We only had to make an example of one crewmember on one of the smaller freighters; everyone else is falling into line nicely."

              "Excellent."

              Commander Second Rank Corinne Sosus was at the front of a formation of twelve Intruders speeding off into space away from Avenger.  They each carried one lightweight torpedo and a few thousand rounds of armor piercing ammunition in addition to the laser cannons on the wingtips.

              "Alright Warbirds," she spoke into her helmet mic.  "Just remember the plan.  These are pirates; scum that doesn't deserve our attention, much less our lives.  We have the big pieces in this puzzle taken care of, so don't do anything overly risky.  Save it all for the Primans, not these filthy scavengers.  We have our targets; let's show them how it's done, alright?"

              She grinned as she thought about the hell her people were about to unleash on the criminals located a micro-jump away.

              One deck below the bridge, in Avenger's C3 room, Loren Stone surveyed his own staff.  Lieutenant Commander Sarria Mastruk wandered the rows of terminals, her watchful eye taking in the preparations of the crew.  On the raised platform at the rear of the space, Loren looked over the attack plan one more time, trying to find fault with something.  It was useless; it was as foolproof as could be hoped for, considering the amount of prep time and objectives at hand.

              "Ready for the jump, Loren?" he heard from his side.  He turned to look at the on-screen image of Captain Elco from the bridge. 

              "C3 is all set, Captain."

              Elco looked off screen, looking at what Loren knew was the helm station.  "Let's go."

              Captain Ares was leaning back in his command chair, stretching his arms behind his head as he watched the tiny holographic ships of his fleet in the holo field to the right of his station.  A few more runs like this and he'd take a couple weeks off, he decided.

              "Captain!" a panicked voice screeched from the rear of the bridge.  Ares turned around to yell at the man, telling him to not make such a fool of himself, when he saw what the sensor station was showing.

              "Everyone scatter!" he yelled.

              Cory's Intruders reverted to regular space first, instantly performing their trademark starburst maneuver to spread out as quickly as possible.

              Cory's combat computer only took a second to populate her displays with target information.  She was supposed to be looking for a Wilde Systems Cargo Frigate, and Loren had assured her that there would be only one.  It was the captain's own vessel and was the best of the lot.  Everything else was irrelevant, and to Cory it was a wonderfully target rich environment.

              Seconds later, Avenger herself appeared within a few ship lengths of the cargo frigate and immediately made a hard port turn to close the gap.  Her port side laser batteries spoke, virtually outlining the frigate's shape with a continuous stream of deadly blasts to coerce her into not changing course.  An unshielded ship like that pirate vessel wouldn't handle more than two or three hits before it was floating wreckage, and the pirates knew it.

              Cory watched Avenger close on the much smaller ship, then turned her attention to her own task: eliminating the rest of the pirates.  Their profiles matched known pirate vessels in the Confed database and as such had standing capture-or-kill orders, but the simple act of them turning to run was what spurred her on.  She didn't even waste her torpedo on the ships, instead leading her squadron as she weaved among the vessels, chopping away at engines and bridge modules with her lasers and armor-piercing twin autocannons.

              The two ships that fired at them were dispatched by her wingmen, who both used their light torpedoes to guarantee a quick kill.  Whereas laser and cannon hits caused debris, damage and the occasional fire, torpedoes buried themselves deep into the enemy's hull as their shaped charges gutted the insides.  Everything flammable ignited, and both ships were briefly-expanding fireballs before she could even ask who was planning on taking them out.  Her people were on top of their game after years of savage war with the Primans.

              Avenger's two Freedom class transports shot out of the hangars, instantly making tight turns towards the pirate frigate.  Though Avenger didn't have the Marine complement of an Assault Ship like their former fleet companion Torino, she had plenty of security personnel who were trained in initiating and repelling boarding actions and were eager to use their skills.

              The first transport flew low over the frigate's hull, lining up on the dorsal resupply hatch.  It coasted almost to a stop, rear doors open and cargo compartment open to space.  The fully suited Avenger personnel stepped out into space, hanging there for only a second before the tiny thrusters in their packs shot them down to the hull where their gravity boots and hand anchors could be used.  The transport raced ahead, pulling up and away to clear the area.  The second transport pulled a similar maneuver as it flew past the closed hangar bay door on the upper aft portion of the ship just ahead of the engines.

              Both transports dropped off sixteen men and women wearing armored combat spacesuits.  They expertly placed breaching charges, both on the hangar door and resupply hatch.  A second later, the shaped charges were triggered, ripping holes in the pirate's hull.

              The whole ship rocked and Captain Ares felt a painful pressure change in his ears.  His hull had been breached, but he didn't know if it was that reckless Confed ship firing on him or if he had enemy boarders.

              The bridge lights went out, then flickered as about half came back on.  He saw the panicked look in his crew's faces; they weren't combat capable, and as much as they liked pushing others around they weren't up for a truly serious fight.

              That's when he heard the sound of military grade blasters.  "Repel boarders!" he yelled, but most of the crew were just plain old scared stupid.  He'd have to find a way to motivate them.

              He drew his own blaster and shot the sensor operator seated behind him.  "Get on your feet and defend this ship, or I'll shoot you all right here!"

              His actions had the desired effect; the small bridge crew ran out the rear hatch into the corridors of the ship, each grabbing a weapon from the equipment locker by the aft bulkhead.

              Loren and Velk were the last ones into the hangar.  As such, it was their job to place the patch over the hole their team had made upon entry.  The charge was designed to make a certain size hole; the folded-up patch panel, which sprung into its full size when Loren released the clasps on the case, was marginally bigger.  Placed over the breach and hosed down with a handheld spray gun, the panel bonded itself to the hull and hardened in short order.  It wasn't rated for impacts, but it was as strong as any of the rest of the frigate's hull.  More importantly at present, it was airtight. 

              Velk secured the patch panel as he'd been instructed while Loren swept the compartment with his HMR-12 'Hammer' rifle.  There were two pirate bodies lying on the deck, and Velk inspected them for Loren. 

              "Compartment secure," the Priman offered. 

              Loren nodded.  "Nice work."

              Velk just shrugged.

              Captain Ares knew his ship was lost.  He could hear the Confed soldiers advancing a couple frames at a time as they leapfrogged their way to the bridge.  Judging from what his barely-functioning internal scanners told him, they were back by the engines as well. 

              He ran to his quarters, hoping he'd get there before his ship was captured.

              "XO," Loren heard through his helmet pickup, "how's the hangar?" 

              "Secure," he replied to the trooper on the other end. 

              "Ok, bring it on up to the bridge.  We've swept a lot of the ship and are coming back down from the bow.  We'll keep up that random traffic flow so there are always people wandering around searching."

              "We're on the way," Loren replied.

              "You let your subordinate give you orders?" Velk asked.  Loren couldn't tell if the Priman was sporting a look of confusion, revulsion, maybe anger.

              "These guys are my security folks, trained to do this job.  I told them they're tactically in charge and me trying to stick my nose in their business wouldn't help anyone.  It's ok to let your people do their jobs; when they see you trust them with that you'll be surprised what they can accomplish."

              "Admirable," was all Velk could admit.

              They walked down the main corridor as quietly as possible, Loren in the lead with Velk a few paces behind.  Loren kept the rifle shouldered, muzzle down a bit, wondering if he shouldn't switch to his SSK in the confined space.

              Suddenly a hatch opened and two pirates came flying out, the first one body slamming Loren and the second lunging at Velk with some sort of wrench in hand.

              Loren bounced off the bulkhead, wind knocked out of him.  The pirate latched onto the rifle and tried to wrench it from Loren's hands.  They staggered back and forth as each fought for the upper hand.  Finally, Loren stopped fighting back and instead ran towards the pirate, which sent the man against the bulkhead with Loren close up.  He gave the man a knee to the ribs, then a right elbow to the jaw.  The pirate's head snapped around and he tried to bring his face up to see his attacker.  Loren just punched him in the throat, leading with his knuckles.  The man fell right to the floor, gagging and retching as he tried to un-collapse his windpipe. 

              "If you puke on me, I will make you suffer," Loren warned, out of breath.  Fights were hard, and he wasn't as skilled as someone like Halley Pascal.  She knew about pressure points, using an opponent's momentum.  All Loren knew was that if you hit somebody hard enough, they fell down and stayed that way for a while.

              He spun around, rifle to his shoulder, to see what had happened to Velk.  The Priman was standing there, patiently waiting for Loren to notice him, unconscious pirate as his feet.

              "I am ready to proceed," he announced. 

              Loren could only nod.  "To the bridge, then."

              Halley, Web and Mithus had spent the first night carefully hand picking a small number of senators that would eventually be let in on the plan.  Operational security dictated that the politicians not know until the last second, but the three of them assumed they'd be busy running the operation and not have time for counting bodies and keeping everyone in line.  For that, they'd need some of the senators themselves to help take charge. 

              "Ok, so we have our chaperones picked out," recapped Web as the three of them sat at the end of a table in the commissary the next evening.  "We know what each of us is doing during the evac and where our transportation will pick us up.  But we still haven't decided on the distraction to kick off the festivities."

              "We could fake a fight," Mithus offered as he looked at Web with a lopsided grin.  "I could knock you out and during the confusion we jump them."

              "Who says you'd take me out?" Web replied.  "You're looking a little thin and weak there, you know.  I might be able to take you."

              "Boys," Halley interrupted.  "The man we need is the guard on the outer perimeter, walking along the fence on the inside with us.  He's wearing body armor and has a short range tactical comm setup; you can tell by the antenna stub on his shoulder.  We need to eliminate him first before he calls in reinforcements from everywhere.  If the guards inside the security station have to do it, they'll be scrambled and blocked by the virus that will attack their network when we start this."  She glanced back at them to gauge their reaction.  "Sent that one in last week; you're welcome.  What's more, the guards on the inside here are lax; look at the way they shuffle around with their rifles slung half the time.  They're used to guarding docile politicians, not combat prisoners.  If we can grab even one of them, we'll control this courtyard in minutes.  So, how do we get the guard with the radio?"